Resources for agriculture project designers

The most nutritionally vulnerable populations, particularly women and children, should benefit from efforts to improve agriculture. Yet their nutritional needs often have low priority for agricultural projects focused on increasing crop production and incomes. Closer attention to the nutrition needs of women and children could make a significant contribution to reducing malnutrition and building healthy futures. We have developed the following resources to help agriculture project designers effectively integrate the nutrition concerns of vulnerable groups into their activities.

This four-page fact sheet summarizes ways that agriculture projects can maximize nutrition and food security of women, children, and other vulnerable groups. It offers examples of what works and what does not and recommends design strategies that can increase nutritional benefits.

Nutrition and Food Security Impacts of Agriculture Projects: A Review of Experience

This document summarizes IYCN’s review of more than 30 years of studies examining food security and nutrition impacts of agricultural projects in low-income countries. Findings revealed that it is possible to anticipate food security and nutrition impacts and that agricultural projects can be oriented in ways that maximize positive outcomes.

This tool aims to assist project designers in assessing an agriculture project’s likely impacts on the nutrition of vulnerable groups. When it is not possible to include nutrition objectives in the design of a project, conducting a nutritional impact assessment during the planning process can help to avoid unintended negative impacts.

This guidance helps agriculture project designers build nutrition and food security objectives into their projects rather than leave positive impacts to chance. By following this guidance during the initial planning stages, project designers can enhance nutritional impact and food security of vulnerable groups.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) funded this website under the terms of Cooperative Agreement No. GPO-A-00-06-00008-00. The information provided on this website is not official US Government information and does not represent the views or positions of USAID or the US Government.

IYCN was implemented by PATH in collaboration with CARE; The Manoff Group; and University Research Co., LLC.